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The Man Who Wasn't There

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On the set, the largely lost art of shooting actors so they twinkle like Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman in Casablanca required lots of experimentation. In the old days, face makeup for black and white had a yellow cast, but the filmmakers discovered more normal pigments seemed to work fine. Sets were decorated mostly in subdued grays and browns, though the costumes often utilized a wider range of colors to give them a livelier tonal palette on film.

And on the way to its debut in U.S. theaters at the end of October, the movie went through some scary quality-control hiccups too. During the technical warm-up for a premiere at the Directors Guild theater in L.A., a whole reel began melting in the projector, leaving Thornton bubbling over on screen. The snafu? A bulb set too bright liquefied the silver in the film base, which is what makes it look so rich. The solution was simply to dim the bulb a bit, but "it took a few days to calm everybody down," says assocate film editor David Dilberto. "So far, nobody else has called me to tell me prints are burning."

Meantime, the Coens say they haven't seen the low-key color video version Deakins prepared—and don't want to. "It's an option to release it," insists Ethan. "It may or may not be exercised." Adds Deakins: "I don't see why anybody would want to watch a Coen brothers picture that's not the picture they want you to see. I think it's very unlikely, really." USA reps say it's still "too early" to discuss video-release details. For now, just call it the print that wasn't there.

Originally posted Nov 30, 2001 Published in issue #628 Nov 30, 2001 Order article reprints
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